When work is done in a closed pipe, robots are typically being used which are configured to inspect the pipe and also perform work on the pipe. In particular for doing work on the pipe, robots of this type which are typically configured as vehicles include at least one tool.
A special operating area for vehicles of this type is repairing damaged pipes which are damaged in particular through leaks in a wall of the pipe. In order to repair damages of this type, a so-called liner is inserted into the respective pipe. The liner is a hose shaped elongated structure which is applied from an inside of the pipe circumferentially to an inner wall of the pipe and which forms a new pipe wall which covers and seals the damaged locations. A liner of this type, however, in addition to covering undesirable damages, also covers areas which have been kept open intentionally. These are in particular inlets of other pipes which should certainly be kept open after a repair.
The vehicle or robot recited of the general type supra is used to process those openings in the pipe wall which have been closed by the liner unintentionally, wherein for example the recited tool is used. Through this tool, the wall formed by the liner can be locally milled open or bored open in order to relieve the desired opening in the original pipe wall again. In practical applications, there are in particular two problems.
On the one hand side, after inserting the liner, positions of the inlets which were previously easily identifiable for example by a camera are not optically detectable anymore. In order to still move the vehicle to the correct locations along the pipe after inserting the liner and in order to mill the liner open at the correct locations through the tool, a map is typically produced by running the vehicle through the pipe according to the known technique, wherein the map subsequently facilitates correctly positioning the vehicle and the tool.
This method has problems in that it is prone to many errors, which makes it very likely that the pipe or the liner is processed in a faulty manner. Thus, it occurs frequently that some of these inlets are omitted when inlets that are closed by the liner are being milled open, drilling is performed at the wrong locations, inlets cannot be found anymore, and similar. In particular, known devices that are available to operators are typically insufficient to provide low error proneness.
On the other hand side, dust and contaminants are generated while processing the inserted liner with the tool of the robot. Devices for providing orientation within the pipe which are based on transmitting images of a camera or similar are thus typically unusable for the operator since the contamination typically blocks a clear view of the respectively processed location. Accordingly, the operator does not have any detailed information regarding the orientation of the tool, work progress and similar, during the processing. Instead, the operator has to perform the processing in steps, this means interrupted over and over again and wait until the dust created during processing has settled and a clear view of the pipe wall is reestablished. The required time is very detrimental, because relieving the inlet is particularly time critical. The inlets must not be locked too long, since otherwise water flowing for example from a connected dwelling backs up in the branch pipe and can cause damages. Furthermore, the processing time for the finished liner should be kept as short as possible for cost reasons.
For example, DE 10 2010 044 465 A1 illustrates a vehicle which is configured with sensors. These sensors capture data, among other things regarding a position of the tool of the vehicle and forward the data to a processing unit which is in turn connected with a display unit. On this display unit, for example, the inclination of the robot, with respect to its longitudinal axis and transversal axis, is illustrated. Information of this type can be very useful during processing; however, it is not suited to solve the problems recited supra.